


Zankie Final 2

by all_the_ships_are_sailing



Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-16
Packaged: 2018-02-25 15:52:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2627417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_the_ships_are_sailing/pseuds/all_the_ships_are_sailing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would have happened if Zankie had made it to the final two together?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Final Eviction

“Frankie, you are now guaranteed at least second place and the $50,000 prize, but you have a huge decision to make tonight. By deciding who to evict, you are also deciding who you want to sit next to in the final two. Make the wrong choice and it could cost you a half million dollars. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready, Julie!” Frankie answered with a broad smile.

“Please stand, and cast your vote to evict.”

“Beast-mode. You’ve literally been the most loyal person in this house all summer. You are a great human being. You and I banded together when our friend and alliance member, Zach was on the doorstep of eviction and we saved him overnight. We’ve spent this summer working out and eating slop and navigating the ever changing road to tonight,” Frankie swallowed hard and turned to Zach. “Zach. I love you, so much. You are seriously my best friend not only in this house, but probably in life. And we made an alliance on day two in this house. We’ve gone through a lot of rough patches in not only our game play but in our friendship, too. But I need you to know, that not once did I stop loving you as a person.” Frankie took a deep breath as his eyes darted between the two men in front of him. “And with that said, I vote to evict Beast-mode Cowboy, Caleb, I’m sorry, man.”

“It’s official, Caleb, you are the last person to be evicted from the Big Brother house.” Having expected this result from the moment he lost to Zach in the second round of the final HOH competition, Caleb got to his feet, hugged each of the other two remaining houseguests shortly and walked out the front door to a cheering crowd.

As the door closed behind Caleb, Zach threw his arms around Frankie and pulled him tight against his chest. “I love you, too, dude, so much,” he mumbled.

“We actually did it,” Frankie said, pulling away from the embrace. “We actually really did it. We’re the final two. No one else is left. It’s just you and me.”

Zach pulled Frankie back to him. “And the only thing being shown to the public right now is Caleb walking out that door and talking to Julie,” he mumbled, bringing his lips to meet Frankie’s swiftly.

Frankie stumbled backwards with a huge smile spreading over his face. Zach winked.


	2. The Jury

“The fate of the finalists now rests in the hands of the jury. Please welcome Jocasta! Hayden! Nicole! Victoria! Christine! Donny! Cody! And Derrick!”

**Meanwhile inside the big brother house**

“Zach and Frankie please take your seats in the living room.”

Zach and Frankie stopped staring lustfully into each other’s eyes for half a second and sat down in the nominee chairs, lacing their fingers together between them. Frankie looked at their hands before smiling at Zach and squeezing his hand lightly just as Julie Chen appeared on the screen in front of them.

“Zach, Frankie, I am here with the jury. In just a few minutes they will be voting for the person they want to win Big Brother, but before they do, they have some questions for you.”

“Bring it on, Julie!” Zach said, squeezing Frankie’s hand back.

“Alright. Nicole, you’re up.”

“Frankie, why should we vote for you, since you clearly don’t need the money?”

Frankie laughed. “You shouldn’t. I walked in planning on trying to win, and donating the winnings to a charity that builds schools for underprivileged children in Africa, but I understand why you wouldn’t want to vote for me. Especially since you tried to backdoor me the same week you almost succeeded in getting Zach evicted.”

“Thank you, Frankie. Cody, you’re up.”

“This question is for Zach. What percentage of your relationship with Frankie was gameplay? As opposed to actual feelings.”

Zach seemed genuinely upset by the question. “Zero. Legitimately none of this was for the cameras or the game or whatever. It wasn’t a strategy to find my best friend in this house, but it happened anyway. The friendship we built in this house is going places after we walk out that door tonight. Like I said the night we made up with everyone in the fire room, the whole time we were fighting I was literally sitting in the ice room thinking about how much I love Frankie as a person. And that’s still incredibly true.” Frankie squeezed his hand as he finished and smiled gently.

**A while later**

“I’m now going to give each of you one final chance to address the jury before they cast their votes for the winner of Big Brother. Frankie, you may start.”

Frankie stood up from his chair, letting go of Zach’s hand. “I genuinely love each and every one of you. I don’t want this season to end with people hating each other. If you vote for me tonight, thank you, but honestly, if you vote for Zach, you’re just doing what I would have done in your place. I love you all.” He sat back down, squeezed Zach’s hand and looked at the screen.

“Alright, Zach, it’s your turn.”

Zach stood and released Frankie’s hand again. “I can’t stand here and tell you to vote for me over Frankie, because he is literally my best friend. So I just want you all to vote for whoever you want to see win. If you vote for me, great. If you vote for Frankie, that’s exactly what I would have done if I was out there and one of you was sitting here.” He sat back down, and took Frankie’s hand in his again.

“Alright, jurors it is time for you to vote for who you think deserves to win the half million dollar prize. One at a time you will come forward and place the key for the person you want to win into the box. Jocasta, you’re up first.”

Jocasta stepped down from her seat and up to the voting box, slipping a key in as she spoke. “I love you both, but I’m voting for the person I think played the most honest game.”

“Hayden, you’re next.”

“You two are two of the major reasons, I’m sitting where I am tonight, so clearly you were both playing very strong games, just not on my side. I’m casting my vote for the person I think played the most strategic game.”

“Nicole.”

“You both played a great game, but tonight I’m casting my vote for the person I think made the best moves in the game.

**A While Later**

“Zach, Frankie, it is time to reveal who the jury voted for to win the $500,000 grand prize. The runner up will receive $50,000. One at a time, I will pull the keys from the box and reveal who each person on the jury voted for.” Zach and Frankie squeezed each other’s hands as they watched in anxious anticipation.

“Caleb’s vote goes to Zach.” The audience cheered.

“Derrick’s vote goes to Zach.” The audience cheered.

“Cody’s vote goes to Zach.” The audience cheered.

“Donny’s vote goes to Frankie.” The audience cheered.

“Christine’s vote goes to Frankie.” The audience cheered.

“Victoria’s vote goes to Zach.” The audience cheered.

“Nicole’s vote goes to Frankie.” The audience cheered.

“Hayden’s vote goes to Frankie.” The audience cheered.

“We are tied at four votes a piece with only one vote remaining. Jocasta casting the deciding vote,” Julie said as she pulled the key from the box. “The winner of Big Brother and the half-million dollar prize is Zach. Congratulations, Zach! Frankie, Zach, come on out!”

Both wearing wide smiles and clasping each other’s hands tightly, Zach and Frankie got to their feet and exited the big brother house into a storm of confetti. A bit of pass the houseguest hugging occurred with the entire season’s cast reunited on the stage.


	3. Finale Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost Smut Warning

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Frankie was sitting on his hotel-room bed, playing catch up with social media. He got to his feet, slightly confused as to who would be knocking on his door. He peeked through the little hole in the door and giggled to himself as he swung the door open and jumped into Zach’s arms. Zach laughed and almost fell backwards at the sudden attack. Frankie had his legs wrapped around Zach’s waist so Zach carefully walked into the room and shut the door behind him with his foot as both of his arms were wrapped around Frankie. They both laughed as Zach threw Frankie onto the bed, climbing in next to him and holding him down with an arm across his chest.

“Can I ask you something?” Frankie finally said when they’d both stopped dying of laughter.

“Of course,” Zach said rolling onto his side and propping his head up with his hand, the other hand still lying on Frankie’s chest.

Frankie stroked the back of Zach’s hand with one of his own as he spoke. “What is this, Zach? Like really, really, what is this? We’re not in a game anymore, so it’s not an alliance. I’ve said 60 thousand times that you’re literally my best friend, but is this something more than that? Because it feels like something more than that. I mean, you fucking kissed me earlier, and held my hand the entire night.” Frankie finally stopped to breath and Zach stared at his face with a half-smile.

“I’ve said it about a million times probably, but I love you, Frankie. I really do. Not just as a best friend, though you are definitely that if nothing else, but I am genuinely 100% in love with you. Like no question at all. I’ve never been in love before, and I’ve definitely never had feelings for another guy at all before, but with you it’s different. With you, everything’s different. It’s strange and new, but I like it, and I like you. God, Frankie, I don’t know what we are, but all I’ve been thinking about for the past five hours, while I was supposed to be hanging out with my family was you and seeing you again and hugging you, and,” he paused. Frankie turned his head and smiled. “And kissing you again and just everything. It’s ridiculous how much I love you.”

Frankie smirked at Zach and very quickly put a hand on his shoulder pushing him onto his back and then swinging his own leg over Zach and sitting on his lower abdomen. Zach laughed at the sudden aggression and smiled as Frankie laced the fingers of both of their hands together, pinning Zach’s beside his ears on the pillow and brining his own face down to nearly touching Zach’s. “I love you, too. I think I fell in love with you week one. There’s probably a video of that somewhere, which I guess will be a nice memory someday. And you’re all I can ever think about. I literally just want to spend all my time with you, forever. I love you so much.”

Frankie brought his lips down on Zach’s and the two melded together as if that’s precisely what they were created to do. Kissing each other was so natural for the two of them it was almost as if it had happened before, but it hadn’t. Through all 97 days in the Big Brother House, they hadn’t kissed. They came awful close a number of times, most notably one night before their falling out when the houseguests had been given alcohol and Frankie had been kissing all the drunk girls and trying to kiss all the drunk boys all night. They’d wound up in the HOH bedroom and Zach was sitting in one of the chairs when Frankie put himself in Zach’s lap and started trying to kiss him. Eventually they air kissed and Zach said Frankie had had enough kisses that night already. But this was so different now. There weren’t any cameras to worry about. It was literally just Zach and Frankie in a hotel room together and alone. So they kissed for what felt like moments, but was probably almost an hour.

Eventually, Frankie sat back and stared down at Zach, both trying desperately to catch their breaths. Frankie scooted backwards over Zach, causing a pleasurable friction to occur which made Zach let out an unplanned moan between his gasps for breath. Frankie smirked and flopped forward, stretching his neck to Kiss Zach’s lips once before trailing a string of kissing from his collarbone across his chest and down his abs. Zach giggled out Frankie’s name as he so often did, but when Frankie placed a kiss at the top of Zach’s waistband and a hand on Zach’s growing erection through his sweatpants, the giggling turned to a moan. “Fuck, Frankie. God, I love you.”

Frankie giggled and smiled up at Zach, before crawling up so their mouths could reconnect. “And you’re sure you want this?” Frankie asked, hesitantly.

Zach nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“You’re absolutely sure?”

Zach nodded again, more definitely, an almost pleading look in his eyes.

“But you said you’re straight?” Frankie asked, not sure he really wanted the answer this time.

Zach’s pleading eyes turned to sorry eyes. “I did,” he mumbled.

“But now you want this?” Frankie confirmed.

Zach nodded. “More than anything.”

“Because I’m definitely not a girl.” Frankie said, rubbing his stubble covered chin against the bare skin of Zach’s chest. “I have stubble on my face. And,” he said as he moved Zach’s hand from the bed with his own. He placed Zach’s hand on his own growing erection as he continued, “a dick in my pants. And you’re sure this is what you want?” Frankie’s lips hovered just above Zach’s.

Zach smirked and grabbed Frankie’s dick through his sweatpants causing Frankie to moan in surprise and pleasure. “Did you think I hadn’t realized all that before?” He reconnected their lips and flipped their bodies so he was straddling Frankie’s hips on his knees. He rocked his hips so the bulges in each of their pants met in a pleasant friction. Frankie moaned and pulled Zach’s lips down to meet his own as the friction continued.


	4. Zach's First Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smut Warning

“I love you,” Zach panted as their lips broke apart. The steady rocking of their hips hadn’t stopped. “I want you so bad right now,” he panted, kissing Frankie greedily, biting and pulling his bottom lip a couple times.

Frankie slipped his hands up Zach’s chest and ran his hands back down Zach’s chest and abs. “You’re so perfect,” he said in an almost growl before flipping their bodies so he was straddling Zach again, never stopping the friction between their overdressed bottoms. Frankie pulled his own shirt off and threw it on the floor. 

Zach ran his hands down Frankie’s chest and abs pausing only momentarily when he reached the waistband of Frankie’s sweatpants before hooking both of his index fingers inside and tracing the edge to Frankie’s hips. “I need you, like I literally need you right now. I can’t even explain it. God, I love you so much, Frankie.”

Frankie smiled, and jumped to his feet on the bed, one foot on either side of Zach’s hips. He let Zach’s fingers pull his sweatpants off in one swift motion before collapsing back to his knees and tugging at Zach’s own sweatpants until he lifted his bum off the bed for the split second it took Frankie to get him completely undressed. 

For a moment they just stared at each other, until Frankie made the first move, taking Zach’s throbbing erection in both hands, stroking twice and then placing his mouth around it, sucking and licking, greedily as his head bobbed. He could hear Zach moaning and mumbling his name above him and it only urged him to continue, until Zach’s hands found their way to Frankie’s hair and pulled back until Frankie’s mouth was free. Zach then proceeded to pull Frankie back to his lips, kissing him with a relentless passion.

“Why’d you make me stop?” Frankie moaned into Zach’s lips.

“Because, I want to fuck you, and if I let you do that much longer that wasn’t going to happen,” Zach mumbled back. Frankie smirked into the kiss as Zach hands found their way to Frankie’s ass, grabbing and spreading his cheeks. Frankie growled into Zach’s lips. Zach sat up slightly, pulling Frankie tight against his chest. “Please tell me you have lube nearby,” he groaned.

Frankie reached into a toiletry bag on the night stand and pulled out a bottle of lube, handing it to Zach without a word. Zach took it and behind Frankie’s back, looking over his shoulder to see, he coated three fingers of his right hand in the substance before flipping the lid closed and setting it on the nightstand. Zach used his left arm to pull Frankie towards him and slid the first finger of his right hand into Frankie’s waiting asshole. 

Frankie wiggled his hips and kissed Zach’s lips. “You forget I’m used to this, no need to be so gentle,” he groaned as Zach added a second finger and began a scissor-like motion. Not but a few seconds later the third finger was inside Frankie and he was moving against Zach’s hand while slipping sweet kisses on his cheeks and lips and occasionally the end of his nose. “Do me a favor and curl your fingers down a little,” he said with a sly smile. Zach listened immediately and Frankie moaned in great pleasure as Zach’s fingers glazed over his prostate. 

But all too soon, Zach’s fingers were gone and his left hand was reaching for the bottle of lube again. This time he coated his own painfully swollen erection while pulling Frankie’s bodyweight forward onto his chest. Causing Frankie to moan slightly as his own erection rubbed pleasantly against Zach’s abs. Zach carefully lined the tip of his dick up with the entrance to Frankie’s ass and then moved slightly, cuing Frankie to sit back onto the thick protrusion. The pressure and feeling overwhelmed Zach for a couple seconds, allowing Frankie to bounce up and down twice before Zach even started moving. Then carefully and slowly at first Zach started bucking his hips until they reached a steady rhythm. 

Frankie could tell that Zach was getting close to his climax when his breath hitched in his throat with each thrust and his eyes started rolling towards the back of his head. Frankie reached down and began stroking his own cock as the rhythm he and Zach had built became slightly more erratic until finally at just the same moment, both of them reached their climaxes. Zach’s cum filled Frankie’s ass and Frankie’s coated Zach’s chest and abs. As they both came down, Zach carefully removed himself from Frankie and Frankie flopped onto Zach’s chest, not really caring about the pool of his own cum he was landing in.

“I love you,” Zach finally whispered as he caught his breath.

“I love you, too,” Frankie whispered back, nuzzling against Zach’s chest.


	5. Cleaning Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost Smut Warning

After catching their breath and cuddling for a little while, Zach and Frankie collectively decided a shower was in order. Zach was at the point of turning the water on when Frankie’s arms snaked around his waist from behind. Zach immediately stopped what he was doing and put his hands on top of Frankie’s as Frankie’s chin came to rest on his shoulder. Frankie laughed and kissed the side of Zach’s neck lightly, sending a shiver down Zach’s entire body. “Water,” Frankie whispered almost seductively when his lips grazed past Zach’s ear.

Zach released Frankie’s hands and went back to turning the water on as Frankie’s hands slid around to Zach’s back and started massaging. Zach got the water to a comfortable temperature and then quickly whirled around to face Frankie. Frankie was shocked at first and then laughed, placing his hands on Zach’s shoulders and chest. Zach reached out and pulled Frankie to him tightly and kissed him roughly. When they finally pulled away, Frankie’s arms snaking around Zach’s waist and his head falling to Zach’s shoulder, Zach whispered as if he were afraid of the words he spoke. “I’m sort of madly, stupidly, crazily in love with you, Frankie. And I sort of really never want to let you go and just cuddle you close forever.”

“I’m in love with you, too,” Frankie said, standing back from Zach under the flowing water. “And I would like it very much if you could find a practical way to make that work, because let me tell you, I would love nothing more than to just spend the rest of forever in your arms.” He hugged Zach tightly one more time before stepping away entirely and picking up his body wash and wash cloth from the shelf in the corner. 

There was silence, but it wasn’t awkward, just quiet as they washed themselves. Then as Frankie was stepping under the water to rinse the soap off, Zach stepped behind him, closing his arms around Frankie’s body. “I love you,” he whispered in an almost matter-of-fact tone.

“I love you, too,” Frankie responded, turning around in Zach’s arms and putting his own arms around Zach’s neck. “And I swear to God, I will never get tired of hearing you say that.”

Zach laughed and hugged Frankie to him so tightly that Frankie’s feet left the floor for a brief moment which caused Frankie to join in the laughter. “And I will never get tired of the feeling I get when I feel your arms around me,” Frankie continued his previous statement. “And I will never get tired of being close to you like this. I love you, so freaking much, Zach.”

Zach smiled and kissed Frankie quickly but with a huge amount of passion before responding. “I love you, too, Frankie. More than you could ever know.” He then reconnected their lips for a much longer and even more passionate kiss under the falling water.

When they broke apart a few minutes later, Frankie reached over and turned off the water before sliding open the door of the shower and stepping out into the cool air. He grabbed a towel from the shelf and wrapped it around his waist. Turning in place to hand a towel to Zach as he stepped out. “Thanks,” Zach said, taking the towel and wrapping it around his waist. Once the towel was secured he leaned across the distance and kissed Frankie’s cheek. Frankie giggled.

They walked back into the bedroom and Frankie flopped onto the bed and picked up his phone. Zach smiled at him and then looked at the time on the alarm clock. “Oh, guess I should probably go back to my own room, huh? We have to get up really early tomorrow…” Zach picked up his sweatpants from the floor as he spoke.

Frankie frowned. “Don’t leave.”

Zach looked at Frankie and half-smiled. “I have to at least go get my stuff for tomorrow morning.”

“Okay. I’ll give you that, but come back, okay?” Frankie smiled at Zach as he put his sweatpants back on.

“Okay,” Zach mumbled as he leaned over Frankie and kissed his forehead. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Frankie said with a smile as Zach snuck out the door.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Frankie opened, still only wearing a towel around his waist. Zach was there with all of his things in tow. “Thought you were just getting your stuff for tomorrow?”

“Eh. What would be the point of that? I’d just have to go back tomorrow then.”

Frankie laughed and grabbed one of Zach’s bags, helping him into the room. Once they’d put the baggage down, Frankie threw his arms around Zach’s neck and kissed him. Zach wrapped his arms around Frankie’s waist, returning his kiss.


	6. Early Mornings

The alarm on Frankie’s phone went off early the next morning, waking both him and Zach from their deep sleeps. Frankie nuzzled against Zach’s chest and Zach kept his arms locked around Frankie’s back as the music played. Zach kissed the top of Frankie’s head and released him a few moments later. Frankie sat up and took his phone from the nightstand and turned off the alarm. He yawned and stretched before turning his attention back to Zach who had rolled over (his back now to Frankie) and was attempting to continue sleeping.

“Zaaaach,” Frankie said playfully. “Wake up, silly, we have to go meet Julie. Remember? Cause somebody decided to go and win half a million dollars last night,” Frankie laughed and kissed Zach’s neck sloppily.

Zach giggled out Frankie’s name as he rolled onto his back and pulled Frankie’s face to his. “I didn’t decide anything,” he mumbled, connecting his lips to Frankie’s. “You can blame that stupid jury or maybe that jerk that decided to take me to the final two with him.”

“What? You don’t want to go get your money?” Frankie laughed as he spoke. Kissing Zach’s lips between every couple of words.

“Not at this hour,” Zach moaned.

“Well, too bad. We can take a nap later, but you have to get up now,” Frankie said, sitting back and pulling Zach up with him.

“Ugh!” Zach groaned. “How long do we have?”

“The car will be here in like 45 minutes.”

“Ugh!” Zach groaned again, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Before he could stand up, Frankie was on his knees behind Zach, wrapping his arms around Zach’s shoulders and kissing his neck again. Zach laughed, putting his hands over Frankie’s for a brief moment before they broke apart and both got out of bed, stood up, and stretched.

“What are we supposed to wear?” Zach asked Frankie as he went over to his bags.

“Julie said to look nice. I was just going to wear khakis and a button down, I don’t know.”

“Seems about right,” Zach said pulling out his clothing.

45 minutes later, Frankie and Zach were leaving the hotel room. Frankie was wearing khaki pants and a green button-down shirt. Zach was wearing khaki pants and a blue button-down shirt. Frankie smirked as they were about to leave and ran back in to grab one last thing. He returned and handed Zach his signature pink snap-back. Zach laughed and put the hat on as Frankie closed the door behind them.

“It just didn’t seem right to have you not wearing that hat,” Frankie said with a giggle, linking his hand with Zach’s as they headed for the elevators.

“What do you think they’re going to ask us?”

“They’ll definitely ask what you’re going to do with the money. They’ll probably ask if we plan on watching the season back. They might ask if you actually plan on taking me with you to Germany,” Frankie winked as he said the last one.

“I think I can handle that. I just wonder if they’re going to ask like about us.”

“Oh,” Frankie said, squeezing Zach’s hand in his. “They might actually. I didn’t really think of that, but yeah. They probably will.”

“What do we say?” Zach said, as he pressed the button to call the elevator. He turned to Frankie with real concern in his eyes.

“I don’t particularly see why we would have to hide anything, but I guess it’s up to you.”

“So what? We’re in love and going to try to make this work.”

“And that you’re not straight,” Frankie said with a laugh. “They’re going to ask about immediate plans, too, so we should figure out what to say.”

“I mean the wrap party tonight.”

“Of course. When were you planning on going home?”

“My parents and brother are leaving right after the taping this morning, because Peyton has school. Maybe like the day after tomorrow?”

“Okay, so Wednesday?”

“Yeah.”

“We should fly together,” Frankie said as they stepped off the elevator.

“You’re going to Florida?”

“My grandma didn’t come out, so I want to go see her and,” Frankie took a deep breath. “I want to go to my grandpa’s memorial plot and stuff.”

“Oh, yeah. Of course,” Zach said as he squeezed Frankie’s hand. They walked outside and found their driver waiting to let them into their car. 

Once they were settled into the car and on their way to CBS Television Studios, Frankie spoke again. “Then, after a couple weeks in Florida, you should come to New York with me for like a week or something.”

Zach smiled. “Okay,” he responded. Zach let go of Frankie’s hand and instead put his arm around Frankie’s shoulders.

“What are you planning on doing with the money?” Frankie asked as his head flopped onto Zach’s shoulder.

Zach yawned. “I don’t know yet, really. I want to get a place to live of my own. And I want to put some in a savings account for Peyton to go to college.”

“Reasonable,” Frankie said, nodding against Zach’s shoulder. Zach smirked and kissed the top of Frankie’s head.


	7. Interviews and Going Public

“And now we’re going to go live to CBS Television Studios in Hollywood, to see the Talk star and host of CBS’s Big Brother, Julie Chen, and the winner and runner-up from last night’s season finale of Big Brother.”

“Thank you,” Julie said, turning to face Zach and Frankie. “I’m here with the winner of Big Brother, season 16, Zach Rance and runner-up Frankie Grande.” The studio audience cheered. Zach smiled at his parents and brother and Frankie winked at his mom as she sat in the audience. “Okay first of all, congratulations, Zach!”

“Thank you, Julie.”

“The obvious question. What are you going to do with your half-million dollar prize?”

“I want to find a place to live. Like a place of my own, ‘cause right now I’m living with my parents. I also want to set up a college savings account for my little broski.”

“Your brother and parents are here this morning,” Julie said, indicating them in the audience. “What was the hardest part of being away from your family while you were in the Big Brother house?”

“I think really, just not being able to talk to them at all and just ask them how their days were and stuff like that. And not being at my brother’s golf tournaments, that was really tough.”

Julie nodded. “Now, I have a question for Frankie. You won the final head of household competition last night and chose to take Zach with you to the final two over Caleb. Do you think the results would have been different and that you could have won if you chose Caleb?”

“Honestly? I think I would have stood a better chance against Caleb, yeah, but I’d rather have Zach win against me than me win against Caleb. Zach and I made a final two deal on day two in the house and I didn’t want to turn on that after 96 days.”

“You mentioned your final two deal with Zach. Team Zankie was one of the major power teams of this summer. Your alliance and personal friendship was tested a number of different times this summer, but one week in particular it seemed like the entire house existed with the sole goal of making you two hate each other and convincing you, Frankie, to evict Zach. Have either of you had a chance to watch any of the footage back from that week, yet?”

“I don’t think either of us has watched any of the season back yet,” Frankie said, looking at Zach, who shook his head in agreement.

“We prepared a short series of clips from that week if you’d like to watch them back with us and maybe share your reactions,” Julie said and the screen behind them started to play a montage.

The montage included clips of Derrick and Cody plotting the downfall of Zankie. Christine outing the detonators alliance to Nicole and Hayden. Then it included a couple of Frankie’s DR sessions. Zach had tears in his eyes when the montage ended and Julie noticed. “Zach, you’re crying, care to tell us why?”

“That last clip,” Zach said, wiping his eyes. He turned to Frankie. “Thank you. I’m sorry. I love you, too.” Frankie smiled and the two hugged. When they broke apart, Frankie went to put his hands back in his lap, but Zach caught one and laced their fingers, causing Frankie to smile again as he squeezed Zach’s hand.

“That brings us to another question. Probably the most asked question from the fans this season. Are you two really just best friends or is there something else going on here?” Julie asked, eyeing their linked hands.

They both laughed slightly. “I’m gonna let Zach take this one,” Frankie said, squeezing his hand.

Zach gave Frankie a pointed look before turning back to Julie who spoke to fill the silence left after Frankie’s words. “We heard you say all season if you were gay…but you’re straight, how true is that, Zach?”

Zach looked at his mom as he spoke. “Coming into this show. I haven’t had a girlfriend since tenth grade. I’ve only ever dated girls, and I’ve never had feelings for a man. Until I got into that house and met this man,” he said, indicating Frankie by raising their clasped hands. “I’ve never been in love before, but I can honestly tell you right now that we are both really kind of stupidly in love with each other and we’re going to do everything we can to make this work.” Frankie squeezed Zach’s hand and bit his lip. The audience had gasped, but was then started cheering.

Julie smiled. “When did that happen?”

“I’m sure you have the footage somewhere of me talking to myself week one saying I was falling in love with Zach. And the footage of me actually telling him I was in love with him a couple weeks later.”

“And me, responding to that saying I was in love with Frankie, without a doubt. And then after that week where everyone tried to turn us against each other, when we actually argued and I think most of the words spoken were ‘I love you.’ Or the footage no one has seen of when you were interviewing Caleb after Frankie evicted him last night and I kissed Frankie, because I was tired of waiting.”

“So, I guess, I realized it pretty quick, and he just wasn’t ready to admit he wasn’t straight,” Frankie said with a wink. Zach smirked.

“And that brings us to another frequently asked question. Zach, you won a trip for two to Germany during one of the reward challenges this season and said you were going to take your ‘girlfriend’. Later in the season, you said you were taking Frankie. Is that still true? After your answer to the last question, I can guess.”

“Definitely,” Zach said with a smile.

The interview continued for a few more minutes until Julie threw it back to New York. Zach got up immediately, dragging Frankie with him to say goodbye to his family before they had to leave for the airport.


	8. Chance Meetings and Social Media Panic

A few hours later, Frankie and Zach were walking through the Grove, holding hands and laughing, when they ran into one of Frankie’s YouTube friends.

“FRANKIE!” he said, crashing to his friend with full force and open arms. Frankie laughed and let go of Zach’s hand returning his friend’s hug. “I didn’t even know you were still in town!”

“Yeah, sorry. I haven’t even started thinking straight yet.”

“Have you ever thought straight?”

Frankie laughed. “You’re one to talk!” As the playful banter continued, Zach started looking more and more awkward off to the side. Eventually, Zach gave up and started to walk away. He hung his head and the tears of jealousy found the corners of his eyes. It wasn’t more than seconds after he started walking that Frankie’s arms were wrapped around Zach from behind. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Zach shrugged Frankie off and turned around, looking up at him. When Frankie saw the pained expression on Zach’s face, the smile on his own was wiped away immediately. “You seemed perfectly content talking to your friend back there. I figured I’d just leave you to it.”

“Zach, no. Davy is actually just a good friend of mine. He does YouTube, too. We’ve filmed a couple collabs and stuff. I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. I really am. I love you, please come back.”

“His name’s Davy? That’s nice,” Zach said, hanging his head again.

Frankie looked at Zach for a minute before kissing his cheek lightly and turning to yell over his shoulder to Davy. “Hey, Davy! I’ll talk to you later, bro. I seem to have very stupidly managed to make my boyfriend mad at me, the first day of our relationship.” Frankie bit his lip as he turned back to see Zach looking at him, still a vaguely hurt expression on his face, but now half smirking, too. “I’m sorry, Babe. I just didn’t think. Which was stupid of me. Can we please go back to having a good time today?”

Zach forced a smile.

“I’m so sorry,” Frankie said again, pouting at Zach. He threw his arms around Zach and hugged him as tight as was possible, causing many passersby to stare or advert their eyes depending. Zach eventually was genuinely smiling and wrapped his arms around Frankie in return.

“Just, remember I’m there next time, okay? I want to meet your friends and I want you to meet mine, but that’s not going to work if you just pretend I’m not standing right next you when we run into them,” Zach said with a heavy sigh.

Frankie smiled and kissed Zach on the lips. “Won’t happen again. I promise.” Zach smiled, and took Frankie’s hand back in his and interlocked their fingers. They walked across the outdoor area and eventually wound up in Target, not quite sure why or what they were looking for [this actually happens to me a lot, so I figured it could happen to them]. A few minutes later they ran into another one of Frankie’s friends.

“Frankie Grande!” the voice shrieked from behind them. Frankie whirled around on the spot, he knew that voice anywhere. Zach almost fell at the sudden movement, which caused Frankie to laugh and catch him with an arm around his back. The boy with minty green hair approached with a wide smile. It wasn’t until he reached them that Zach realized just how small the other boy was. This wasn’t one to get jealous of, for sure. Frankie seemed to notice the calm that had overcome Zach and squeezed his hand tightly before letting go to hug his friend for a moment, before moving his hand back to Zach’s.

“Hey, Tyler!” Frankie said, excitedly. “This is my boyfriend, Zach. Then again you probably knew that already. I saw your tweets.”

Tyler laughed and turned his attention to Zach. “Nice to meet you. Congratulations on that win!”

“Thanks,” Zach said with a smile.

Frankie smiled at both of them. “Oh, Zach, this is Tyler Oakley, by the way.”

“Youtube.com/TylerOakley, TylerOakley.com, and @TylerOakley on twitter and Instagram,” Tyler said, shaking Zach’s hand which had been released from Frankie’s grip.

“Self-promotion queen of the internet,” Frankie said laughing. Instead of taking Frankie’s hand back, Zach put his arm around Frankie’s back and pulled him gently to his side. Frankie smiled and wrapped his own arm around Zach’s back.

“You two are fucking adorable,” Tyler squeed. 

Frankie laughed. “Sorry. We don’t try it.”

“Not like I meant to question my sexuality and fall in love with the most perfect human being ever on national television,” Zach added.

“You fell in love with me on national television?” Tyler asked in his naturally flirtatious tone.

“I’m sorry. Let me clear that up,” Zach said, turning to kiss Frankie boldly.

“Are you saying, Frankie is more perfect than me?” Tyler asked with mock indignity.

“Only just,” Zach responded with a laugh.

After catching up and agreeing that Frankie and Tyler simply must collab in the near future, the three went their separate ways. Zach and Frankie ended up heading back to their hotel not long after that encounter. When they reached their room, they flopped onto their bed and Frankie pulled out his laptop.

When he opened twitter, which he hadn’t done since the night before, he had over ten thousand mentions. “Oh god, what did I do now?” Frankie said, anxiously looking at the little notification tab on the homepage.

“What?”

“I have like 12 thousand mentions on twitter in the past 12 hours.”

“Probably that interview this morning…”

Frankie took a deep breathe. “I’d almost forgot about that. You’re probably right,” Frankie said as he started sifting through the tweets. Most of them were supportive and excited. There were a few negative remarks, but he was most interested in the links some of them were including. Fan made videos on YouTube and blog posts on Tumblr. Things that by the end of the next couple hours of sifting showed both Frankie and Zach that the fans not only supported them now, but had been shipping it all season.

“I love that we can go back and see all this shit at that went down now, and know that we were both always in this for real,” Zach said, flopping his head onto Frankie’s shoulder.

“I don’t know how we ever thought, Derrick and Cody wanted to be our friends.”

“Me either, but it doesn’t matter now.”

“I’m just so glad, I found you.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my entire life,” Zach said, turning his head to kiss Frankie’s neck lightly. Frankie laughed as he snapped his laptop shut, placing it on the nightstand and turning over to tackle Zach to the bed in fits of giggles. “I literally love you so freaking much,” Zach whispered as he locked his arms around Frankie’s back.

“And I literally love you so much more,” Frankie giggled, diving down to kiss Zach’s lips.

“I think that’s impossible.”

“What?”

“Loving me more than I love you. I’m pretty sure I love you as much as it is physically possible for a human being to love another human being.”

“I don’t know about that,” Frankie said with a giggle as he kissed Zach again.


End file.
